Image editing apparatus and recording medium

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to a materials sending apparatus for creating an edit list of an material including one or both of video data and audio data and sending the material, comprising: edit list creating means for creating an edit list containing information associated with an edit point of the material and information associated with a destination on which the material is recorded; reconfiguring means for splitting the edit list for each recording destination on which the material is recorded and reconfiguring the edit list for the each recording destination; and materials output means for outputting the material edited on the basis of the reconfigured edit list.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to an image editing apparatusfor editing digital video signals. This image editing apparatus issuitably for use in editing systems of broadcast stations (for example,broadcast stations of broadcasting industries, office broadcaststations, and school broadcast stations) providing services such asbroadcast communication for general public and simultaneous transmissivecommunication for specified members or in editing systems such aspost-production.

Post-production herein denotes producing such titles (or video content)completed in terms of audio and video as broadcast programs, TVcommercials, and video packages by use of sophisticated editingtechniques and composing techniques on the basis of audio and videomaterials recorded on video tape, disk, film, and so on. Especially,post-production denotes the operation for carrying out these activities.

Generally, it is indispensable for broadcast stations andpost-production companies to carry out jobs of cutting out necessaryportions of material and connecting the cuts into desired video content.Conventionally, editing machines used for such editing jobs areso-called linear editing machines based on magnetic tape. However,because these tape-based machines are not capable of doing delicateediting jobs on a frame basis and take a long time in doing editingjobs, they are recently being replaced by digital nonlinear editingmachines based on storage devices such as hard disk.

The nonlinear editing machine is capable of randomly accessing materialin a frame basis. Therefore, the nonlinear editing machine isadvantageous in doing delicate editing jobs and avoiding thedeterioration of video signals by storing them in a digital format.

The editing jobs by nonlinear editing machines are substantially thesame as those by linear editing machines. Namely, “rough editing”(necessary portions of material are roughly cut out and recorded) isexecuted first; then “fine editing” (precise cut-out is done on a framebasis) is performed on the results of rough editing.

A definite difference from the linear editing machine lies in that thenonlinear editing machine generates information about the results of theabove-mentioned rough and fine editing jobs (this information ishereafter referred to as editing result information) and holds thegenerated information separately from the material to be edited. Theediting result information includes the information for use inidentifying materials to be edited and the information for use inidentifying cut-out start and end points. On the basis of this editingresult information, the nonlinear editing machine reproduces thematerial to be edited. In other words, while the linear editing machineperforms editing directly on the material to be roughly edited itself,the nonlinear editing machine performs indirect editing by generatingthe above-mentioned editing result information without manipulating therough edit material.

The editing result information is described in a format called an EDL(Edit Decision List). One EDL includes fine edit information (forexample, place at which the material was taped, material name, editpoint information, and so on) about all materials constituting one pieceof video content. On the basis of this EDL, the nonlinear editingmachine retrieves a predetermined portion (a portion specified by theedit point information, namely a fine edit portion) of each materialfrom a storage device, connects the retrieved portions according toreproduction sequence information, and reproducibly outputs a series ofresultant video content.

In terms of the storage capacity of these nonlinear editing machines forrecording materials, however, the nonlinear editing machine isdisadvantageous as compared with the linear editing machine using themagnetic tapes. Although the storage capacities of hard disk and otherstorage media have been remarkably increasing these days, the storagesize of each device is several gigabytes at most. To compensate for thisshortcoming, a nonlinear editing machine realizing a mass storage sizehas recently come into practical use by taking advantage storage devicearraying technologies represented by RAID (Redundant Array ofInexpensive Disk).

Broadcasting stations and post-production companies are various inbusiness size and irregular in the amount of materials to be handled.That is, the material storage size of the nonlinear editing machinediffers from one editing system to another in general. Therefore, inorder to enhance the flexibility of the system configuration, thestorage size required for each editing system is satisfied by combiningbasic units of a storage system such as a hard disk system having apredetermined storage size. If the basic unit is called a volume forconvenience, a small-scale editing system is equipped with therelatively small number of volumes while a large-scale editing systemwith the relatively large number of volumes, thereby flexibly copingwith editing systems of various scales.

However, with a nonlinear editing machine having two or more volumes,the pieces of information of different volumes (in which recordings arestored) exist together in one EDL. This presents a problem ofcomplicating the control of material reproduction to be executedaccording to the EDL.

If material is reproduced according to the EDL that includes pluralpieces of information about storage devices of recordings, the nonlinearediting machine must sequentially retrieve the information about storagedevices of recordings from one EDL and, on the basis of the retrievedinformation, execute control operations such as port switching in aproperly timed relation. Originally, however, the EDL has been appliedto nonlinear editing machines having a single volume. Therefore, theabove-mentioned control such as port switching is an additional task,which consequently increases the control burden of the nonlinear editingmachine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to reconfigure theEDL such that there is only one piece of information about storagedevices of recordings, thereby preventing the material reproductioncontrol in nonlinear editing machines each having plural volumes frombeing needlessly complicated.

In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, thereis provided a materials sending apparatus for creating an edit list ofan material including one or both of video data and audio data andsending the material, comprising: edit list creating means for creatingan edit list containing information associated with an edit point of thematerial and information associated with a destination on which thematerial is recorded; reconfiguring means for splitting the edit listfor each recording destination on which the material is recorded andreconfiguring the edit list for the each recording destination; andmaterials output means for outputting the material edited on the basisof the reconfigured edit list.

In carrying out the invention and according to another aspect thereof,there is provided a materials sending method for creating an edit listof an material including one or both of video data and audio data andsending the material, comprising: a first step for creating an edit listcontaining information associated with an edit point of the material andinformation associated with a destination on which the material isrecorded; a second step for splitting the edit list for the recordingdestination on which the material is recorded and reconfiguring the editlist for the recording destination; and a third step for outputting thematerial edited on the basis of the reconfigured edit list.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention and the manner of realizing them will become more apparent,and the invention itself will best be understood from a study of thefollowing description and appended claims with reference to the attacheddrawings showing some preferred embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other objects of the invention will be seen by reference tothe description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an overallconfiguration of a video server system;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an A-line of a massstorage subsystem;

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a main sectionincluding a GUI, an EDL split processing block, a VFL enteringprocessing block, and a switching point decision block;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart describing an EDL split processing program;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart describing a VFL entering processing program;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart describing a VFL_(—)SUB program;

FIGS. 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D, and 7E are schematic diagrams illustrating EDLsplit processing and VFL entering processing;

FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C are schematic diagrams illustrating severalexamples of VFL entering processing;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating switching point decisionincluding no VFL; and

FIGS. 10A and 10B are schematic diagrams illustrating switching pointdecision including VFL.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Now, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described byuse of a video server system installed in a broadcasting station forexample with reference to drawings. It will be apparent to those skilledin the art that the present invention is not limited to theabove-mentioned video server system. The present invention is applicableto any image editing apparatus having plural storage devices ofrecordings and any system that includes such an image editing system.For example, the present invention is applicable to an editing systemused in post-production.

Overall configuration of video server system 1:

FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration of a video server system 1. Thevideo server system 1 can be classified by role into an in-station uppersubsystem 100, an operator subsystem 200, a database subsystem 300, amass storage subsystem 400, and a send-related subsystem 500.

These subsystems carry out their own roles to be described later. Eachsubsystem may include a personal computer or a workstation (hereaftergenerically referred to as a personal computer) with a general-purposeoperating system, (OS) installed as needed to perform all of or a partof the roles efficiently and with low cost.

Especially, the operator subsystem 200, as will be clear from thefollowing description, includes at least one unit (FIG. 1 show 5 unitsof this personal computer as an example) of a network-compatiblepersonal computer (comprising a personal computer main mounted with anetwork card, a hard disk drive, and so on, a display device, and inputdevices such as keyboard and mouse for example) with a predeterminedgeneral-purpose OS (for example, Windows 95/98 or NT (trademark ofMicrosoft Corporation)), which is excellent in GUI (Graphical UserInterface), thereby achieving good man-machine interface with operators.

Configuration of in-station upper subsystem 100:

The following describes a preferred configurational example of eachsubsystem. First, an in-station upper subsystem 100 has an uppermanagement system 101 installed in a program production department forexample. The upper management system 101 creates a schedule (a programconfiguration table) of broadcast programs for example.

It should be noted that, to be precise, the upper management system 101is connected to a network belonging to a work group of a systemdifferent from the video server system 1. In order to construct aso-called WAN (Wide Area Network) by connecting this network to thevideo server system 1 (LAN-to-LAN connection), a data gateway 102 isinstalled in the in-station upper subsystem 100. The data gateway 102shown is constituted by a network-compatible personal computer, in whichtwo network cards for example are loaded in slots of the personalcomputer, one connected to the upper management system 101 and the otherto a LAN 600 of the video server system 1, thereby enabling theselective transfer of necessary data between both the networks.

If the direction of data transfer from the upper management system 101to the video server system 1 is “downstream” and the reverse directionis “upstream,” then the downstream data include a schedule for examplewhile the upstream data include a list of broadcast materials which havebeen broadcast (this list is called a send result list).

Configuration of operator subsystem 200:

The operator subsystem 200 has plural personal computers (5 units 201through 205 as shown as an example) with a general-purpose OS excellentin GUI environment installed as described above. These personalcomputers are operated by staffs in charge of recording, editing, sendmonitoring, materials management, and system management for examplerespectively.

If these jobs are executed by a single person or these jobs are notexecuted simultaneously, only one unit of personal computer may beinstalled. Namely, the application programs for recording, editing, sendmonitoring, materials management, and system management (or a singleapplication program with all these functions integrated) may beinstalled in one personal computer, starting one of these programs everytime one of these jobs is to be executed.

Actually, however, the all or a part of above-mentioned jobs are oftenexecuted in parallel, so that it is preferable to install pluralpersonal computers each for each of these jobs; the personal computerfor recording (recording terminal) 201, the personal computer forediting (editing terminal) 202, the personal computer for sendmonitoring (send monitoring terminal) 203, the personal computer formaterials management (material management terminal) 204, and thepersonal computer for system management (system management terminal)205.

The recording job stores (or records) broadcast materials into the massstorage subsystem 400. The editing job edits, in a nonlinear manner, thebroadcast materials stored in the mass storage subsystem 400. The sendmonitoring job monitors a send operation that follows a schedule of thebroadcast materials stored in the mass storage subsystem 400. Thematerials management job manages the broadcast materials stored in themass storage subsystem 400. The system management job manages theoperating environment for example of the AV server system 1.

The terminals 201 through 205 are connected to the LAN 600 via networkcards, not shown, loaded in the slots of these terminals. Each of theseterminals may be installed in plural in preparation for the sharing ofone job by plural staffs. For example, the editing terminal 202 may beinstalled in plural.

Configuration of database subsystem 300:

The database subsystem 300 includes a network-compatible database engine(for example, an SQL (Structured Query Language) database engine) andhas a database table that allows the reference, update, and addition ofrecord data with the terminals 201 through 205 of the operator subsystem200 via this database engine. This database table includes the datasupplied from the upper management system 101 and the data such as thesystem settings set by the system management-terminal 205.

General configuration of mass storage subsystem 400:

The mass storage subsystem 400 provides the nucleus of the video serversystem 1, one embodiment of the present invention. In fact, this is amass storage hard disk array system built by taking advantage of knownmass storage hard disk management technologies, typically RAID(Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disk).

It should be noted that RAID has four levels, RAID0, RAID1, RAID3, andRAID5, RAID0 is a so-called stripe set, in which plural hard disks aresequentially used on a block basis. RAID0 allows high-speed read andwrite operations at the expense of a low reliability (let the number ofdisks be n and failure probability be x, then the failure probability ofentire system becomes 1−(1−x)^(n)) RAID1 is a so-called mirror set (or amirroring), in which same data are written to plural hard disks. RAID1is characterized by that the failure of hard disks does not lead to theloss of data if at least one of them is normally functioning. Theprobability of data loss with RAID1 is x^(n), which is very high, at theexpense of a low disk usage efficiency.

RAID3 has, performance between RAID0 and RAID1. Namely, RAID3 isconstituted by RAID0 plus a hard disk dedicated to parity (informationfor data recovery). The parity generated from the data located at thesame logic block as the hard disc constituting RAID is written to thisparity hard disk. If one of the hard disks fails, RAID3 can restore thedamaged data by use of the data of the remaining hard disks and theparity stored on the parity hard disk. Therefore, RAID3 does not losedata unless the two hard disks including the parity hard disk fail. Thefailure probability of RAID3 is n(n−1)/2×(x²). This is lower than RAID1but far higher than a single hard disk configuration. As compared withRAID1, RAID3 is remarkably higher in disk usage efficiency.

The drawback of RAID3 is that the access to parity hard disk alwaystakes place every time data are written to any other hard disk, whichmay often cause a bottleneck in performance. RAID5 is the improvement ofRAID3 in this point. RAID5 has no parity hard disk, distributing parityinformation to all hard disks. However, the disk usage efficiency andthe reliability are the same as those of RAID3. The mass storagesubsystem 400 shown uses, but not necessarily, RAID3 for storing videodata and RAID1 for storing audio data.

In order to enhance fault resistance and be used as a daily server or anon-air server but not necessarily. The mass storage subsystem 400 isconfigured in its main portion, in a dual manner, A line and B line. Thesame materials data are stored in each of these lines. The A line has anSMS (Server Management System) 401 a, an IDC (Intelligent DeviceController) 402 a, and a video server 403 a. Likewise, the B line has anSMS 401 b, an IDC 402 b, and a video server 403 b. In addition, the massstorage subsystem 400 has a cassette controller 404 and a cassette autochanger 405, which are common to both the lines, a materials machine406, which is controlled by the IDCs 402 a and the 402 b, a monitordevice 407 for displaying preview images for example, and a commandrelay device 408.

The command relay device 408 provides command interface between theoperator subsystem 200 and the mass storage subsystem 400 (for example,in a certain type of practical video server system, this command relaydevice 408 is constituted by two devices called a server managementterminal and an EZMAX terminal). It should be noted that the functionsof the command relay device 408 may be distributed to the operatorsubsystem 200 (the terminals 201 through 205) and the mass storagesubsystem 400 (the SMS 401 a and SMS 401 b) to eliminate the necessityfor installing the command relay device 408. However, in considerationof the difference in the configurations of the operator subsystem 200and the mass storage subsystem 400 (for example, the number ofterminals, the number of video servers, or the GUI functionality ofthese terminals) between users, it is desirable, from the viewpoint ofgeneral versatility, to provide the command relay device 408 between theoperator subsystem 200 and the mass storage subsystem 400. The commandrelay device 408 can cancel the configurational differences, therebyproviding flexible system configurations satisfying user needs. Further,the installation of the command relay device 408 can mitigate theprocessing loads of the operator subsystem 200 and the mass storagesubsystem 400.

The monitor device 407 previews the broadcast materials read from themass storage subsystem 400 according to commands given from the operatorsubsystem 200.

The cassette auto changer 405 is equivalent to the conventionaltape-based send materials storage device. With the cassette auto changercan record data stored in the video servers 403 a and 403 b onto amagnetic tape as library data and is available as an emergency standbymachine for the video servers 403 a and 403 b of both lines by use ofthese magnetic tape data.

The cassette controller 404 arbitrates the allocation of variousresources of the cassette auto changer 405 in response to resourcerequests from the recording terminal 201, the editing terminal 202, andthe send monitoring terminal 203. The basic functionality of thiscontroller is similar to that of the SMS 401 a and the SMS 401 b, sothat it will be described along with the description of the SMSfunctionality.

Detail configuration of mass storage subsystem 400:

Referring to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a configuration of one line(in this example, A line) of the mass storage subsystem 400. In thefigure, supply blocks 715 through 719 and send blocks 720 through 724are equivalent to the materials machine 406 shown in FIG. 1 and aswitcher 704 is equivalent to a master switcher 503 shown in FIG. 1.Namely, the video server is portions enclosed by dashed lines (indicatedby reference numerals 725 and 726) shown in FIG. 2 to be precise.However, in the following description, a portion (indicated by referencenumeral 403 a) enclosed by dot-dash lines is called the video server forthe sake of convenience.

The SMS 401 a is connected to the command relay device via the LAN 600(refer to dashed line A) and the command relay device 408 is connectedto the operator subsystem 200 (the terminals 201 through 205) (refer todashed line B) via the LAN 600. The SMS 401 a, along with the IDC 402 a,arbitrates the allocation of various resources of the video server 403 ain response to control commands supplied from the operator subsystem 200(to be specific, the terminals 201 through 205) via the LAN 600 and thecommand relay device 408 and, at the same time, sends control commandsto the IDC 402 a. In response to these commands received from the SMS401 a, the IDC 402 a executes realtime control in which the commands areexecuted with an internal timer or an external GPI (a control signalbased on a manual operation) used as a trigger.

It should be noted that the resources herein denote such devices as theinput/output channel for each volume (to be described later) of thevideo server 403 a, the connection points of a switcher 704 (to bedescribed later), and the hard disks constituting RAID. The terminals201 through 205 of the operator subsystem 200 each can exclusively usethe allocated devices during a period of the allocation.

The resource allocation must be executed dynamically in response to therequests from the terminals 201 through 205 of the operator subsystem200. Static allocation requires the provision of resources in the numberequal to the number of terminals of the operator subsystem. Therefore itis inefficient in system configuration and becomes unrealistic as thesystem scale increases. It should be noted that the employment ofdynamic resource allocation requires measures for controlling thecontention for particular resources and the priority in allocation. TheSMS 401 a provides the arbitration for the resource contention and theallocation priority (specific arbitrating operations will be describedlater).

As shown in FIG. 2, the video server 403 a comprises n+1 (in the figure,n=2 for sake of convenience) sub IDCs (hereafter SIDCs) 701 through 703,the switcher 704 (which can change the combinations of input/outputconnection points according to control signals and therefore is likenedto an exchange system), n controllers (CNTs) 705 and 706, m×n (in thefigure, m=3 for the sake of convenience) input/output processors (IOPs)707 through 712, n RAID blocks 713 and 714, j (in the figure, j=5 forthe sake of convenience) supply blocks 715 through 719, and j sendblocks 720 through 724. The CNT 705, the IOPs 707 through 709, and theRAID block 713 constitute a first volume 725 (V1). The CNT 706, the IOPs710 through 712, and the RAID block 714 constitute a second volume 726(V2).

Consequently, the shown video server system 1 has the mass storagesubsystem 400 having n volumes (the first volume 725 and the secondvolume 726) for each line. Because this mass storage subsystem 400 isused by the operator subsystem 200 (to be specific, the editing terminal202) for nonlinear editing operations, the editing terminal 202 and themass storage subsystem 400 integrally form a nonlinear editing machineequipped with plural volumes.

It should be noted that the CNT 705 and the IOPs 707 through 709 of thefirst volume 725 are connected to the RAID block 713 with a RAID bus 727and the CNT 706 and the IOPs 710 through 712 are connected to the RAIDblock 714 with a RAID bus 728.

The first volume 725 and the second volume 726 are connected to theSIDCs 701 through 703, the supply blocks 715 through 719, and the sendblocks 720 through 724 via the switcher 704. The send block 720 through724 are connected to the master switcher 503 shown in FIG. 1. The supplyblocks 715 through 719 are connected to the materials machine 406 shownin FIG. 1 and also to a VTR and a communications line, not shown. Thus,the materials data inputted in the supply blocks 715 through 719, namelythe materials data supplied from the materials machine 406 or the VTR orthe communications line can be recorded on the RAID block 713 and theRAID block 714 of the first volume 725 and the second volume 726 via theswitcher 704.

Switching the connection point of the switcher 704 under the control ofthe SMS 401 a can dynamically change the combinations of the IOPs 707through 709 of the first volume 725 and the supply blocks 715 through719 (or the send blocks 720 through 724) or the combinations of the IOPs710 through 712 of the second volume 726 and the supply blocks 715through 719 (or the send blocks 720 through 724).

For example, specifying the supply block 715 as the recording source andthe IOP 707 of the first volume 725 as the recording destination permitsthe capture of the materials data set to this supply block 715 from theIOP 707 to record the captured materials data onto the RAID block 713 ofthe first volume 715.

Operations (especially arbitration of resource contention and resourceallocation) of mass storage subsystem 400:

The following describes the operations of the SMS 401 a and SMS 401 bthat arbitrate the resource contention and the resource allocation ofthe mass storage subsystem 400.

The SMS 401 a and SMS 401 b (hereafter represented by the SMS 401 a of Aline for the sake of convenience) has at least two tasks (an executionmanagement task and a resource information management task) to berealized by the organic linking of software (the OS and predeterminedapplication programs) and hardware.

“Task” denotes a unit of program execution controlled and managed at theOS level. For example, while MS-DOS (trademark of Microsoft Corporation)can manage only one task at a time (so-called single-tasking), Windows95, 98, and NT, UNIX, and OS/2 (trademark of IBM Corp.) can manage twoor more tasks at a time (so-called multitasking). When viewed fromusers, a task may be sometimes called a job. Recently, except forspecial applications, use of a single-tasking OS such as MS-DOS is rare;most applications use multitasking operating systems such as Windows 95,98, NT, UNIX, and OS/2. Therefore, in the present embodiment, term“task” is used in consideration of this technological background(multitasking environment), but “task” may also be referred to as job orprogram.

The execution management task provides interface between the operatorsubsystem 200 and the IDC 402 a. It should be noted that, actually, thecommand relay device 408 exists between the operator subsystem 200 andan execution management task 900 but, for the simplicity of description,the existence of the command relay device 408 is ignored.

Receiving a resource request command from the operator subsystem 200,the execution management task 900 inquires a resource management taskwhether resource allocation is enabled or disabled and sends a signalindicative of the inquiry result to the operator subsystem 200. Inaddition, receiving an actual operation command for resource allocationfrom the operator subsystem 200, the execution management task notifiesthe resource management task of the use of the resource concerned and,at the same time, transfers the operation command to the IDC 402 a,notifying the operator subsystem 200 of a result (normal end or abnormalend) of the execution of the operation from the IDC 402 a.

The resource management task holds, always in the most recent state, thecurrent information about the resources to be managed by the SMS 401 a,as a resource information database. For example, the resourceinformation database contains tables listing user information, resourcemanagement information, materials information, connections information,open management information, and error information. The user informationtable manages the identification-information assigned to the terminals201 through 205 of the operator subsystem 200 or the identificationinformation assigned to the staffs positioned to these terminals. Theresource management information table manages such informationindicative of the current states of resources as resource names,resource types, resource group names, resource states, resourcecommunication states, reserved user names, and reserved priorities. Thematerials information table manages the information about materials dataaccumulated in the video server 403 a. The connections information tablemanages the information about the connections of resources. The openmanagement information table manages the information about openedresources (currently used resources). The error information tablemanages the information about resources in which errors took place andthe information about the details of these errors.

A resource requesting device (for example, one of the terminals of theoperator subsystem 200) can issue a file open command (OPEN) of thefollowing format for example:

-   -   OPEN [SN] [MD] [RSC] [PR] [USR]

[SN] denotes a command number, normally SN=1. If two or more commandscontinue, SN=2, SN=3, and so on. [MD] specifies file open mode. Inreproduction mode, MD=PLAY and, in recording mode, MD=REC. [RSC]specifies a resource. For example, let RSC=HDS_(—) 1. AV1, then the IOP707 of the first volume 725 shown in FIG. 2 is specified. Therelationship between RSC and resource depends on the contents(especially resource names) of registration in the resource managementinformation table.

[PR] specifies a priority. PR=100 denotes the lowest priority. As thevalue approaches zero, the priority rises. [USR] specifies the userinformation of the resource requesting side. For example, USR=USER_(—) 1denotes the resource allocation request by a user named USER_(—) 1.

For example, upon reception of an OPEN command of MD=PLAY, RSC=HDS_(—)1. VA1, PR=100, USR=USER_(—) 1, the execution management task sendsthese pieces of information to the resource information management task.

The resource information management task references the user informationtable, the resource management information table, the materialsinformation table, the connections information table, the openmanagement information table, and the error information table todetermine whether the requested resource allocation is enabled ordisabled. For example, the resource information management task rejectsthe resource allocation request if any of the following conditions issatisfied: (i) USER_(—) 1 is not registered in the user informationtable; (ii) the resource state of HDS_(—) 1. AV1 in the resourceinformation management table is “unavailable”; (iii) the resourcecommunication state of HDS_(—) 1. AV1 in the resource informationmanagement table is not “connected”; and (iv) the reserved user name ofHDS_(—) 1. AV1 in the resource information management table is otherthan “none” and a value lower than PR=100 is set to the reservedpriority. Otherwise, the resource information management task permitsthe request resource allocation and creates a new entry in the openmanagement table. All of the above-mentioned conditions (i) through (iv)are resource allocation arbitrating conditions. Condition (iv) is thearbitrating condition for priority.

The resource information management task sends the information about theallocation request permission or rejection to the execution managementtask, which transfers this information to the resource requesting side(the operator subsystem 200). If the resource allocation is permitted,information called stream ID (for example, CSTAT SID=n, where n is agiven integer) is transferred from the execution management task to theresource requesting side (the operator subsystem 200).

The stream ID is a unique identification code corresponding to the opencommand for which the resource allocation has been permitted. Byreceiving this stream ID, the resource requesting side (the operatorsubsystem 200) can know that the video server 403 a is ready (namely,the standby state). Subsequently, by use of this stream ID, the operatorsubsystem 200 can sequentially issue control commands for the allocatedresource.

For example, for reproduction, the operator subsystem 200 issues “PLAYSID=n”. If the stream ID is not used, such a command including theinformation similar to that at the time of resource requesting as “PLAYREC=IOP_(—) 1 MD=PLAY PR=100”. Thus the use of stream ID can simplifycommands.

Configuration of send-related subsystem 500:

The send-related subsystem 500 includes an upper control system 501(hereafter referred to as a send control system for the sake ofconvenience) installed in the send section, a send control gateway 502 aof A-line and a send control gateway 502 b of B-line for updating thetable data in the database subsystem 300 according to the notificationdata (standby command, standby status data, and so on) supplied from thesend control system 501, and the master switcher 503 shared by bothA-line and B-line.

It should be noted that the send control system 501 sends the send playcontrol information (PLAY command) to the IDC 402 a of A-line and theIDC 402 b of B-line and the master switcher 503 supplies on-air tallyinformation (OA-TALLY command) to the IDC 402 a and the IDC 402 b.

Overall operation of video server system 1:

The following describes an overall operation of the video server system1 practiced as one embodiment of the invention by use of a job ofediting (rough editing and fine editing) the materials for a newsprogram for example.

The news program materials include a library material or a videomaterial (hereafter relayed material) supplied from a relay mobile forexample. The library material is a material recorded beforehand on amagnetic tape by the cassette auto changer 405. Before recording, acassette tape recorded with necessary library materials is set to apredetermined VTR. The relayed material is also sent to the broadcaststation via a microwave communications system or a communicationssatellite to be inputted in the video server system 1 through aprearranged communications line.

For example, assume that the supply block 715 shown in FIG. 2 beconnected to a predetermined VTR and the supply block 716 shown in FIG.2 be connected to a predetermined communications line, then roughlyediting the above-mentioned library materials or relay materials andrecording the roughly edited materials in the mass storage subsystem 400are executed in the following sequence. First, the recording terminal201 is operated to send a request for resources including the supplyblock 715 or the supply block 716 to the mass storage subsystem 400.When a resource allocation permitted notification is received from themass storage subsystem 400, the recording terminal 201 issues arecording start command to the mass storage subsystem 400. Theabove-mentioned library materials or relay materials are recorded in theRAID block 713 of the first volume 725 and the RAID block 714 of thesecond volume 726 via the supply block 715 and the supply block 716.

When finely editing materials recorded in the mass storage subsystem400, the editing terminal 202 is operated to issue a resource allocationrequest to the mass storage subsystem 400. The resource allocationrequest is for the use of a particular send block (for example, the sendblock 720 for the sake of convenience) connected to the editing terminal202, among the send blocks 720 through 724 of the mass storage subsystem400. Receiving a resource allocation permitted notification (namely, thepermission of the use of the send block 720) from the mass storagesubsystem 400, the editing terminal 202 outputs a reproduction commandfor reproducing the material to be edited to the mass storage subsystem400. In response to this command, the mass storage subsystem 400reproduces the material to be edited and sends the reproduced materialto the editing terminal 202 via the send block 720. The editing terminal202 displays the received material on the display device on a framebasis and, at the same time, in response to the specification of editpoints (so-called in-point and out-point) entered by the edit staff,generates edit result information of EDL format including the edit pointinformation, materials name information, and materials recordeddestination information (the information about the first volume 725 andthe second volume 726). As for the other materials to be edited, theediting terminal 202 repeats the output of the above-mentioned resourceallocation request and reproduction command and the specification ofedit points. When the EDL data necessary for reproducing a sequence ofvideo content composed of various fined edited materials have beengenerated, the editing terminal 202 stores these EDL data into thedatabase subsystem 300, upon which the fine editing processing comes toan end.

Reconfiguration of EDL:

The video server system 1 practiced as one embodiment of the inventionhas n volumes (the first volume 725 and the second volume 726) for eachline as described above. Consequently, materials to be fined edited maybe scatteringly recorded over different volumes. If this happens, an EDLcreated by fine editing comes to have plural pieces of recordingdestination (volume) information, thereby incurring the problemdescribed in the beginning herein (namely, the complicated control overmaterials reproduction).

To remove this problem, the present embodiment provides the followingportions characteristic thereto to reconfigure the EDL having pluralpieces of volume information into one having a single piece of volumeinformation.

Referring to FIG. 3, there is illustrated the above-mentioned portionsin the present embodiment. In the figure, four portions, but notnecessarily, are shown which are functionally realized by the organiccoupling of the hardware and software of the editing terminal 202.Namely, a first portion is a GUI 202 a for providing user interface tothe operating staff of the editing terminal 202. The operating staffoperates this GUI 202 a to carry out the above-mentioned fine editing,thereby generating an EDL (including plural pieces of recordingdestination information). It should be noted that preferably the GUI 202a is, but not necessarily, graphics-based one that uses the GUIenvironment of the OS. The GUI 202 a may also be non-graphics-based onethat provides interface by commands inputted from the keyboard alone.

A second portion is an EDL split processing block 202 b (equivalent toreconfiguring means recited in claims appended hereto). When a programto be described later (EDL split processing shown in FIG. 4) isexecuted, this EDL split processing block 202 b creates plural EDL_(j)having a single piece of volume information from an EDL having pluralpieces of volume information. For example, with an EDL having two piecesof volume information, V1 and V2, the EDL split processing block 202 bgenerates an EDL₁ having only the V1 volume information and an EDL₂having only the V2 volume information.

The essential point for the achievement of the present invention can besaid concentrated onto this second portion, the EDL split processingblock 202 b. Essentially, the EDL_(j) having no plural pieces of volumeinformation is substantially the same as the conventional EDL applied tononlinear editing machines based on a single volume. In this EDL,switching between volumes does not take place and therefore suchadditional control as port switching is not required. It should be notedthat the specific processing of the EDL split processing block 202 bwill be described later.

A third portion (a VFL entering processing block 202 c equivalent to thevirtual file making means recited in the claims appended hereto) and afourth portion (a switching point decision block 202 d) are preferablyprovided for the following reasons.

Generally, the access speed of hard disk devices is limited by the seekspeed of the read/write head. This is because the movements of the headare mechanical and therefore there is a limit to the attempts ofincreasing the head seek speed. Consequently, the head requires anon-negligible latency between a time when it accesses certaininformation and time when it accesses another information (a period inwhich the head moves to the storage location of this information). Ifthis latency is converted into the number of image frames and referredto as F_(REF), then F_(REF) may becomes as large as two-digit figure(namely, several tens of frames) depending on the performance of thehard disk device. Thus, the conventional nonlinear editing machinesconfigured on the basis of hard disk devices are limited inspecifications that the interval between in-point and out-point ofmaterials cannot be shortened below F_(REF). This limitation is adrawback which is not negligible for nonlinear editing machinesproclaiming fine editing on a frame basis. To remove this problem, thethird portion (the VFL entering processing block 202 c) and the fourthportion (the switching point decision block 202 d) are provided. Itshould be noted that the specific processing operations of the third andfourth portions will be described later.

EDL split processing:

FIG. 4 is, an outline flowchart describing an EDL split processingprogram which is executed in the EDL split processing block 202 b. Thisprogram is executed when reproducing materials by use of an EDLgenerated by the GUI 202 a. When this program is executed, the EDLconcerned is read in step S1 first. In step S2, two counter variables (iand j) are set to 1 for initialization.

Next, in step S3, equation “Part_(i)=Volume_(j)” is evaluated. Part_(i)denotes the recording destination indicated by i-th element (a part inwhich information about the fine editing of one material is collected)of the EDL read in step S1. For example, if the EDL read in step S1 iscomposed of five elements (Part₁ through Part₅) as shown in FIG. 7A,then, when i=1, Part_(i)=V1; when i 2, Part_(i)=V1; when i=3,Part_(i)=V2; when i=4, Part_(i)=V1; and when i=5, Part_(i)=V2.Volume_(j) denotes a j-th volume. Because the volumes in the presentembodiment are two volumes (n=2), the first volume 725 (V1) and thesecond volume 726 (V2), when j=1, Volume_(j)=V1; and, when j=2,Volume_(j)=V2.

Consequently, the result of the evaluation of the equation in step S3is, if the EDL is as shown in FIG. 7A, logically TRUE (YES) when i=1,i=2, or i=4 or logically FALSE, (NO) when i=3 or i=5 under the conditionof j=1; under the condition of j=2, the result is logically FALSE wheni=1, i=2, or i=4 and logically TRUE when i=3 or i=5.

Depending on the result, the process goes to step S4 or S5 to executethe EDL split processing. Namely, in step S4, Part_(i) is linked withEDL_(j) to generate EDL_(j). In step S5, instead of Part_(i), Mute (adummy frame signal excluding audio and video information, a black burstsignal for example) is linked with EDL_(j) to generate EDL_(j). In stepS6, i is incremented by one. In step S7, it is determined whether i>imax(imax denotes the number of elements of the EDL; for example, imax=5 inthe example shown in FIG. 7A). Steps 3 through 7 are repeated untili>imax. When i>imax is obtained in step S7, then, i is set to 1 in stepS8. In step S9, j is incremented by one. In step S10, it is determinedwhether j>jmax (jmax denotes the number of volumes; in the presentembodiment, max=2). Steps 3 through 10 are repeated until j>jmax. Whenj>jmax is obtained in step S10, the program comes to an end.

The above-mentioned processing flow will be described more specificallyby use of the EDL shown in FIG. 7A for example. The shown EDL iscomposed of five elements Part₁ through Part₅. The recordingdestinations of the elements are V1, V1, V2, V1, and V2 respectively.Therefore, if i=1 when j=1, the equation in step S3 becomes V1=V1 and“EDL₁=EDL₁+Part₁” is executed in step S4. If i=3, the equation in stepS3 becomes V2=V1 and “EDL₁=EDL₁+Mute” is executed in step S5. If i 4,the equation in step S3 becomes V1=V1 and “EDL₁=EDL₁+Part₄” is executedin step S4. If i=5, the equation in step S3 becomes V2=V1 and“EDL₁=EDL₁+Mute” is executed in step S5.

Consequently, a final string of the EDL₁ elements becomes V1, V1, Mute,V1, and Mute as shown in FIG. 7B, indicating that the EDL₁ contains onlyone recording destination (V1).

If i=1 when j=2, the equation in step S3 becomes V1=V2 and“EDL₂=EDL₂+Mute” is executed in step S5. If i=2, the equation in step S3becomes V1=V2 and “EDL₂=EDL₂+Mute” is executed in step S5. If i 3, theequation in step S3 becomes V2=V2 and “EDL₂=EDL₂+Part₃” is executed instep S4. If i=4, the equation in step S3 becomes V1=V2 and“EDL₂=EDL₂+Mute” is executed in step S5. If i=5, the equation in step S3becomes V2=V2 and “EDL₂=EDL₂+Part₅” is executed in step S4.

Consequently, as shown in FIG. 7C, a file string of EDL₂ elementsbecomes Mute, Mute, V2, Mute, and V2, indicating that the EDL₂ containsonly one recording destination (V2).

As described, in the present embodiment, one EDL containing two or moredifferent recording destinations can be divided or reconfigured intodifferent EDLs (EDL₁ and EDL₂ in this example) each for each recordingdestination. Use of the reconfigured EDL₁ and EDL₂ allows the user tohandle the mass storage subsystem 400 constituted by plural volumes asif it were a conventional single-volume nonlinear editing machine toreproduce materials, thereby providing advantages of preventing thecontrol system for material reproduction from being complicated.

VFL (Virtual File List) entering processing:

As described, the VFL entering processing block 202 c is intended forremove the limitations in the specifications of the hard disk device(namely, the inability to consecutively access the materials that followF_(REF)) For example, if the total number of frames of Part₁ and Part₂is less than F_(REF) in FIG. 7B, the consecutive reproduction of thematerials indicated by the element information of Part₁ and Part₂ isimpossible. This is because, as described, the head seek speed of thehard disk device is too low. If the element (Part_(i)) corresponding tothe above-mentioned limitation is found, the VFL entering processingblock 202 c creates a virtual file list (VFL) including that elementaccording to the following rules:

-   -   (a) The frames of adjacent Part_(i) are added and, when the sum        exceeds F_(REF), one VFL is provided.

(b) If the position of F_(REF) is Mute in (a) above, adjustment is madesuch that this Mute is linked with VFL to provide F_(REF).

-   -   (c) If there is no more Part_(i) to be added before reaching        F_(REF) in (a) above, adjustment is made such that Mute is        linked with VFL to provide F_(REF).

The VFL holds physical data storage locations in the hard disk device aspointer information called file entry (FE) information and record entry(RE) information. One file entry is created for each VFL and one or morerecord entries are created for each VFL. Each file entry holds the namesof virtual files and the pointer to the first record entry. Each recordentry holds the pointer to a next RE and the last RE holds an end offile (EOF) information. Identifying a file entry by file name andfollowing, from the identified file entry, the pointers to chain recordentries allow access to a sequence of data in the virtual file.

Referring to FIG. 7D, the shown VFL is composed of Part₁ and Part₂. ThisVFL portion is composed of two pieces of materials data to be recordedto V1 and an appropriate amount of Mute (refer to (b) above). Becausethe sum of frames matches F_(REF), the shown VFL portion is not affectedby the above-mentioned limitations in the specifications of the harddisk device (namely, the inability to consecutively access the materialsthat follow F_(REF))

FIG. 5 shows an outline flowchart describing a VFL entering processingprogram to be executed by the VFL entering processing block 202 c. Whenthis program is executed, loop variable (j) is set to 1 forinitialization in step S21. In step S22, EDL_(j) is read. EDL_(j)denotes EDL₁ and EDL₂ obtained by splitting one EDL by the EDL splitprocessing block 202 b for the volumes (V1 and V2). If j=1, EDL₁ is readin step S22; if j=2, EDL₂ is read in step S22.

When EDL_(j) has been read, a VFL_(—)SUB program to be described lateris executed in step S23. In step S24, EDL_(j) is updated. In step S25, jis incremented by one. Until j>jmax is determined in step S26, the stepsS22 through S26 are repeated. When j>jmax is found in step S26, thisprogram comes to an end.

VFL_(—)SUB

FIG. 6 shows an outline flowchart describing the VFL_(—)SUB portion ofthe above-mentioned VFL entering processing program. This programportion is a step subroutine program for the convenience ofillustration.

When the VFL_(—)SUB program is executed, loop variable (i) is set to 1for initialization in step S23 a. In step S23 b, frame count variable(F_(NUM)) is set to 0 for initialization. Next, it is determined whetherPart_(i) is “Clip” (a data element other than Mute) or not. If Part_(i)is found not Clip, then i is incremented by one in step S23 h. In stepS23 i, it is determined whether i>imax.

If Part_(i) is found Clip, then the number of frames of Part_(i) isadded to F_(NUM) in step S23 d to update F_(NUM) by the result. BecauseF_(NUM) =0 now, If i=1, the updated F_(NUM) represents the number offrames itself of Part₁.

Next, equation “F_(REF)>F_(NUM)” is evaluated in step S23 e. Thisequation determines whether F_(NUM) at that time is lower than F_(REF),which is the specification limitation of the hard disk device.

If the result of the evaluation is logically TRUE (YES), then the VFLflag is turned on in step S23 j. In step S23 k, Part_(i), is set to beentered into VFL. In step S23 h, i is incremented by one. In step S23 i,it is determined whether i>imax.

If the result is logically FALSE (NO), then it is determined in step S23f whether the VFL flag is on or not. If the VFL flag is found off,F_(NUM) is initialized in step S23 g. In step S23 h, i is incremented byone. In step S23 i, it is determined whether i>imax. If the VFL flag isfound on, then it is determined, in step S23 m, whether Part_(i) is Muteor not.

If the VFL is found not Mute, then, this Part_(i) is set to be enteredinto VFL in step S23 q. In step S23 r, the VFL flag is turned off. Instep S23 h, i is incremented by one. In step S23 i, it is determinedwhether i>imax.

On the other hand, if the VFL is found Mute, then a difference betweenF_(NUM) and F_(REF) is obtained in step S23 n and the result is set todifference variable (F_(ADJ)). In step S23 p, the number of frames ofPart_(i) is reduced by F_(ADJ). In step S23 q, the resultant Part_(i) isset to be entered into VFL. In step S23 r, the VFL flag is turned off.In step S23 h, i is incremented by 1. In step S23 i, it is determinedwhether i>imax.

The above-mentioned processing flow will be described more specificallyby use of EDL₁ shown in FIG. 7B for example. If i=1, the element to beprocessed is Part₁ and, because this Part₁ indicates the information(other than Mute) of a material to be recorded on V1, so that thedecision in step S23 c is YES. In step S23 d, the number of frames ofPart₁ is set to F_(NUM). As shown in FIG. 7B, the number of frames ofPart₁ is obviously below F_(REF), so that the decision in step S23 e isYES. Consequently, the VFL flag is turned on in step S23 j. In step F23k, the element currently to be processed (Part₁) is set to created inVFL.

Next, i is incremented by one in step S23 h. In step S23 i, it isdetermined whether i>imax. Because i=2 and therefore i is less than imax(imax=5), step S23 d is executed again. Namely, the number of frames ofPart₂ is added to F_(NUM) to update the same. Because F_(NUM) before theaddition holds the number of frames of Part₁, a sum of the number offrames of Part₁ and the number of frames of Part₂ is obtained in stepS23 d and the result is set to F_(NUM). As shown in FIG. 7B, the sum ofthe number of frames of Part₁ and the number of frames of Part₂ isobviously below F_(REF), so that the decision in step S23 e is YES.Consequently, in step S23 k, the element (Part₂) to be processedcurrently is also set to be entered in VFL.

After incrementing i by one in step S23 h, it is determined whetheri>imax in step S23 i. Because i=3 and therefore it is below imax(imax=5), step S23 d is executed again. Namely, the number of frames ofPart₃ is added to F_(NUM) to update the same. Because F_(NUM) before theaddition holds a sum of the number of frames of Part₁ and the number offrames of Part₂, a sum of the number of frames of Part₁, the number offrames of Part₂ and the number of frames of Part₃ is obtained in stepS23 d and the result is set to F_(NUM). As shown in FIG. 7B, the sum ofthe numbers of frames of Part₁ through Part₃ is in excess of F_(REF), sothat the decision in step S23 e is NO, and because the VFL flag is on,the program goes to step S23 m to determine whether Part₃ is Mute ornot.

In this example, Part₃ is Mute. Therefore, in step S23 n, F_(REF) issubtracted from the current F_(NUM) (the sum of the numbers of frames ofPart₁ through Part₃) and the result is set to F_(ADJ). In step S23 p,the number of frames of Part₃ is reduced by F_(ADJ). In step S23 q,Part₃ is set to be entered in VFL. Then, in step S23 r, the VFL flag isturned off.

The above-mentioned processing operations generate one VFL having astructure shown in FIG. 7E. Use of this VFL circumvents thespecifications limitation (namely, the inability to, consecutivelyaccess the materials subsequent to F_(REF)) of the mass storagesubsystem 400, thereby permitting the fine editing on a frame basis, oneof the advantages of nonlinear editing machines.

In other words, the two materials (each to be recorded onto V1) includedin the VFL concerned are originally recorded independently on the firstvolume 725 of the mass storage subsystem 400. Because the number offrames of these materials corresponds to the specifications limitationof the mass storage subsystem 400, the consecutive access to materialsis disabled. To circumvent this specifications limitation, each materialis handled as a virtual file. This novel setup permits the consecutiveaccess to materials to execute the fine editing on a frame basis, one ofthe advantages of nonlinear editing machines.

Referring to FIGS. 8A, 8B and 8C, there are shown several patterns ofcreating a VFL. FIG. 8A shows an example of VFL constituted by twoelements having only Clip, namely including no Mute. In this example, asum of the number of frames of Part_(i) and the number of frames ofadjacent Part_(i+1) is in excess of F_(REF). In this case, one VFL isconstituted by Part_(i) and adjacent Part_(i+1).

FIG. 8B shows an example of VFL constituted by n (n>3) elements havingonly Clip, namely including no Mute. In this example, a sum of thenumber of frames of Part_(i), the number of frames of adjacentPart_(i+1), and the n number of frames of adjacent n-th Part_(i+n) is inexcess of F_(REF). In this case, one VFL is constituted by Part_(i),Part_(i+1), and Part_(i+n).

FIG. 8C shows an example of VFL in which n-th element is Mute. In thisexample, n-th Part_(i+n) is Mute and a sum of the total number of framesis in excess of F_(REF). In this case, one VFL is configured by reducingthe number of frames of the last Mute by F_(ADJ).

The reason of this reduction is that, because the frames of the lastMute are all identical, the reduction does not affect the image. Inaddition, minimizing the VFL length in correspondence with F_(REF)permits reuse of already created VFLs and shortens the time necessaryfor preprocessing.

Namely, F_(REF) tends to become large as the interval between materialsstorage locations increases. This is because the read/write head of thehard disk device must travel longer. Hence, it is desirable to executepreprocessing (so-called defragmentation for example) for shortening theinterval between materials storage locations. This preprocessing may beexecuted on all materials. But, to prevent the overhead from beingincreased, only some of materials which are scatteringly located may bepreprocessed.

Meanwhile, when several Part_(i) are put in VFL in bulk, an elaborateplan must be worked out on the decision of the connection points of theswitcher 704 (refer to FIG. 2). If no Part is put in VFL, the switchingpoints (SP₁, SP₂, SP₃, and SP₄) of the volumes may be used as theconnection points of the switcher 704 as shown in FIG. 9. If Parts havebeen put in VFL and if Mute is included in the VFL as shown in FIG. 10Afor example, the end point (indicated by an interrogation mark) must beused as the connection point. But, because the information thereof isnot included in the VFL, all connection points cannot be specifiedcorrectly (in the example of FIG. 10A, only switching points SP₁, SP₂,SP₃, SP₄ and SP₅ except for the interrogation mark portion can bespecified).

To overcome this problem, the original element portion set to be put inVFL are stored. In determining the connection point of the VFL portion,the stored information may be referenced to determine the end point(SP₃) of Mute in the VFL as the connection point as shown in FIG. 10B.This allows the correct specification of all of connection points SP₁,SP₂, SP₃, SP₄, SP₅, and SP₆. The switching point decision block 202 dshown in FIG. 3 realizes this functionality.

As described and according to the invention, the following effects canbe obtained for example:

-   -   (1) EDL_(j) containing only single-volume information may be        applied to a nonlinear editing machine having plural volumes,        thereby preventing materials reproduction control functionality        from being complicated.    -   (2) The specifications limitation (the inability to        consecutively access materials subsequent to F_(REF)) of the        hard disk device can be mitigated, thereby making the most of        such an advantage of the nonlinear editing machine as the fine        editing on a frame basis.    -   (3) The VFL length (the number of frames) is minimized in        correspondence with F_(REF), so that already created VFLs can be        reused to reduce the overhead in VFL creation. In addition, when        preprocessing such as defragmentation is executed in a unit of        VFL, the preprocessing time can be reduced in correspondence        with the VFL length, also reducing the overhead in VFL creation.

The main features of the present embodiment are functionally realized bythe organic combination of the hardware resources includingmicrocomputers and the software resources including the OS and variousprograms. Because the hardware resources and the OS used in the presentembodiment are general-purpose ones, the entity essential for thisinvention is substantially the program portion for realizing the EDLsplit processing block 202 b. Therefore, the present invention comprisesstorage devices such as floppy disc, optical disc, compact disc,magnetic tape, hard disc, and semiconductor memory that store all ormain portions of the application program for realizing the EDL splitprocessing or components (unit products, finished products, andsemi-finished products) including these storage devices. It should benoted that the these storage devices or components include thosecommercially available in the form of packages and those of whichrecorded contents are available on networks.

While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed using specific terms, such description is for illustrativepurposes only, and it is to be understood that changes and variationsmay be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the appendedclaims.

1. A materials sending apparatus for creating an edit list of a material including one or both of video data and audio data and for sending said material, comprising: edit list creating means for creating the edit list that contains information associated with an edit point of said material and information associated with a destination on which said material is recorded; reconfiguring means for reconfiguring said edit list as a function of each recording destination on which said material is recorded; and materials output means for outputting said material edited on the basis of the reconfigured edit list, wherein when said reconfigured edit list contains a material indicative of another recording destination, said reconfiguring means has rewriting means for rewriting said information to information for specifying the reproduction of dummy data in a range of said material indicative of another recording destination.
 2. The materials sending apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said reconfiguring means, when the number of frames of said material to be put in said reconfigured edit list is less than a predetermined value, reconfigures said edit list to make said number of frames equal to said predetermined value by adding said dummy data to said material.
 3. The materials sending apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the number of frames of said material to be put in said edit list is less than said predetermined value, said reconfiguring means has reproduction file creating means for creating a reproduction file indicative of a reproduction start position and a reproduction end position of said material for said material to be put in said edit list.
 4. The materials sending apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said predetermined value is a maximum value of a time for the reproduction of said material recorded on a recording medium to which nonlinear access is enabled.
 5. The materials sending apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said predetermined value is a value obtained by converting, by the number of frames of said material, a time for the reproduction of said material recorded on a recording medium to which nonlinear access is enabled.
 6. The materials sending apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said reproduction file is constituted by information indicative of a reproduction position of said material recorded on said recording medium from a recording start position of said material on said recording medium and information indicative of a reproduction end position corresponding to a length of said material to be reproduced from said reproduction start position.
 7. The materials sending apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising, when said reproduction file is constituted by a plurality of materials, holding means for holding switching information indicative of a switching point between said plurality of materials, wherein said material output means has switching means for switching said plurality of materials at said switching point on the basis of said switching information held in said holding means.
 8. The materials sending apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said switching information includes information indicative of a switching point in said predetermined value of said dummy data and said switching means switches said dummy data along with said plurality of materials, outputting a result of the switching.
 9. A materials sending method for creating an edit list of an material including one or both of video data and audio data and sending said material, comprising: a first step for creating an edit list containing information associated with an edit point of said material and information associated with a destination on which said material is recorded; a second step for reconfiguring said edit list as a function of each recording destination on which said material is recorded; and a third step for outputting said material edited on the basis of the reconfigured edit list, wherein said second step further includes, when said reconfigured edit list contains a material indicative of another recording destination, a rewriting step for rewriting said information to information for specifying the reproduction of dummy data in a range of said material indicative of another recording destination.
 10. The materials sending method according to claim 9, wherein said second step, when the number of frames of said material to be put in said reconfigured edit list is less than a predetermined value, reconfigures said edit list to make said number of frames equal to said predetermined value by adding said dummy data to said material.
 11. The materials sending method according to claim 10, wherein said second step further includes, when the number of frames of said material to be put in said reconfigured edit list is less than said predetermined value, a reproduction file creating step for creating a reproduction file indicative of a reproduction start position and a reproduction end position of said material for said material to be put in said edit list, said material below said predetermined value being sent on the basis of said reproduction file.
 12. The materials sending method according to claim 11, wherein said predetermined value is a maximum value of a time for the reproduction of said material recorded on a recording medium to which nonlinear access is enabled.
 13. The materials sending method according to claim 11, wherein said predetermined value is a value obtained by converting, by the number of frames of said material, a time for the reproduction of said material recorded on a recording medium to which nonlinear access is enabled.
 14. The materials sending method according to claim 11, wherein said reproduction file is constituted by information indicative of a reproduction position of said material recorded on said recording medium from a recording start position of said material on said recording medium and information indicative of a reproduction end position corresponding to a length of said material to be reproduced from said reproduction start position.
 15. The materials sending method according to claim 11, wherein said second step further includes, when said reproduction file is constituted by a plurality of materials, a holding step for holding switching information indicative of a switching point between said plurality of materials, and said third step further includes a switching step for outputting said materials on the basis of the edit list and switching said materials on the basis of said switching information held.
 16. The materials sending method according to claim 15, wherein said switching information includes information indicative of a switching point in said predetermined value of said dummy data and said third step switches said dummy data along with said plurality of materials, outputting a result of the switching. 